A mobile electronics lab for all your projects

When [Nisker]’s son got a very, very loud and annoying toy, he did what any good maker parent would do: instead of removing the batteries, he sought a way to lower the volume instead. This, of course, meant cracking open the toy and going at the circuit board with a soldering iron. Not having a permanent electronics workbench meant [Nisker] needed to dig out his Weller from a bag full of tools. Surely there must be an easier way to be a tinkerer with a small workspace.

[Nisker]’s solution was to build a mobile electronics workbench. The resulting wooden box has more than enough space to hold a signal generator, power supply, soldering iron, multimeter, and a bunch of other tools required for making or modding electronics projects.

The case was designed in Google Sketchup and constructed out of 12mm plywood for the sides and 6mm ply for the shelves. All the pieces were cut out with a circular saw and pieced together with screws and glue.

Now [Nisker] has a very compact – 16.9 x 7.9 x 22 inches – electronics lab he can carry just about anywhere. Not a bad project if you’re limited by your current space, and classy enough to keep around once you finally set up a proper workshop.

+1
Cause he’s never going to use it for anything else ever again.
I love looking at peoples organization ideas. My local hackerspace is trying to get an after school program set up and something along these lines is definitely required if teaching electronics on the go is a goal.
It’d also be useful at various cons and fests

Some people have a problem seeing beyond what is explicitly written. I must admit though that the article spins the story just as much around the toy as the mobile workbench which may be confusing… I guess… for some people.

There’s generally a problem with hostility. Ranging from people who think its only an accomplishment if you made a jet motor out of a pack of rubber bands and a strawberry to people who just like to say “booo” all the time.

sounds like me coding. I sit down, see the compiling and linking mess, craft elegant makefiles, scripts to auto download headers for the chips… and 3 days later, with the perfect setup, I move to something else.

also, i’d love to “not have space for a soldering iron” but have the means to work out a dozen revisions of some woodworking contraption

Not to dismiss Nisker’s build, but this can be made lighter, and yet strong. Look to vintage luggage,chests, and even some military campaign furniture for construction technique clues. Not that 1/2″ plywood is that heavy, but it’s heavier than need be if paying to ship it.

The plywood thickness was determined by finding a suitable piece at a good price. I think you could go with 6mm/0.24″ for the back as well (the front already is 6mm) the but for the the frame I would not go below 9mm/0.35″ – the power supply and soldering iron supply are quite heavy and it would most likely bend.
Also the weight is not a big issue for me – I rarely move it very far.

I’m guessing some people don’t bother reading the articles? Nisker has space, he just doesn’t have space indoors where he’d like to be messing with electronics. It’s a nice solution to a problem a lot of people have.